I'm an active hiker, snowshoer, skier, backpacker,
amateur geographer and naturalist. Home base
for me is the Southern Colorado Rockies, where
I'll hike from 7000 ft (2100 m) to above treeline,
with an occasional desert trip at lower altitudes. Six to 12 miles (10 to
20 km) in a day is my norm, including elevation gains up to 4000 ft
(1200 m). Most of my backpack trips are two or three nights,
sometimes longer, carrying 30-40 lb (14-18 kg). My style is
lightweight but not obsessively so - extras like binoculars, camera and
notebook make my trips more enjoyable.

The
complete title for this trail map is "The Sawatch Range: Leadville to
Buena Vista to Monarch", and the area covered is the Sawatch mountain
range along the west side of the Upper Arkansas Valley in the central
part of Colorado. Although the publisher's website printed on the
map now
belongs to another mapmaker outside of Colorado, this map is readily
available at many retail outlets throughout Colorado, and at online
retailers and non-profit trail organizations. The map covers
roads and over 65 official trails in the mountain area from the city of
Leadville south to Monarch (Monarch Pass on the Continental Divide), an
area
about 60 mi (100 km) long and 20 mi (32 km) wide, split vertically with
the north half on one side and the south half on the other. Space
is
reserved for a
legend and for an extensive and detailed listing of all named
trails, trailheads, and campgrounds in the area. All distances
are stated in miles only. Most of the map is in shades of green,
with detail highlights in yellow, blue, magenta and gray.

Field Performance

Here's
a pocket-sized map that features trails, trailheads, access roads,
campgrounds, prominent peaks, water courses, and topographic contours -
all designed and printed in tasteful colors and very readable
graphics. The "Sawatch Range" hiker's map is great for locating
where I can start a hike (or, in the winter, snowshoe) and for tracking
the trail's length and estimated difficulty. Although there are
many available paper maps for the Colorado mountains, many using much
larger scales than this one, the trade-off is having to carry a larger
folded object and the awkwardness that ensues when it flaps in the wind
while unfolded. I'll take the Mountain Map with me when I already
know the trail and don't need the terrain detail that those other maps
provide. It's also good for surveying possible hikes at home
since it covers such a large area.

Since I live in a small town at the southeast end of this map, this is my
backyard! For those not familiar with the area, the Sawatch Range
covered here is home not only to stretches of the Colorado Trail (CT)
and the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) (over 100 mi (160 km) of each),
but to 14 of Colorado's 14ers (peaks over 14,000 ft (4267 m)).
Many beautiful lakes and streams call this area home, as well as
ecological zones from piņon-sage scrub through pine, fir, spruce and
high alpine meadows. Rock climbers and mountaineers will also
find this map useful to locate access routes to their destination
climbs. In the next two photos below, the map detail covers the
same high mountain area as my shot of the Sawatch skyline. The
map detail image has enough resolution to allow zooming in to see all
of the printed details.

I
like the readability of this map: the predominately light green tones
are pleasing to my eye, the light blue water features are visible
without jumping out too much. The map scale resolves to 9/16 in
(1.4 cm) per mile. Roads are depicted with solid lines in various colors,
trails in dashed lines helpfully distinguished by color: red for 14er,
purple for long-distance, dark green for other trails. Trail
numbers stand out via a large yellow oval. Each trail has its
mileage marked from the trailhead to either the end of the trail or to its
junction with another trail or road. National Forest and
Wilderness boundaries are clearly shown. In addition to the 400
ft (122 m) light-gray contours, topographic shading in green and gray helps
emphasize relief and makes it easy to follow the trails' paths within
valleys, over ridges, and to the tops of peaks.

Along the bottom edges of three sides of the map are detailed trail
listings that include Trail #, Trail Name, Miles, Trailhead, Low and
High Elevation, and features found on the trail: Stream, Lake,
View, Historic Ruin, and Waterfall. There are also listings for
each trailhead and for public and private campgrounds.
All of these data are indexed to the map on its grid
so it can be easily located.

In use on the trail I found the Mountain Map easy to fold out either
partially or completely, and likewise it's small enough to easily
refold on the original creases.

As for accuracy of trail mileages and elevations, I have ground-truthed
only two or three trails, but those were accurate. But I've also compared
mileages with those shown on other well-used and verified maps in my
inventory, and Mountain Maps' numbers seem accurate to me. Although the map's publisher
does not list his sources specifically, topographic and other map data
are publicly available, and he does state that he collected some data
himself. As far as I can tell, the "Sawatch Range" is the only
map currently available from Mountain Maps at the time of this writing.

I'm happy to see a Leave No Trace statement (placed below one of the Trail detail sections)
describing best practices for hikers and other
Wilderness/outdoor users so that we leave our
playgrounds as undisturbed as possible, while enjoying
nature and the solitude it has to offer. More
about Leave No Trace can be found at its website.

Since it was published in 2011, there has been some new trail
construction, especially for the Continental Divide Trail. Hikers
planning a trip there (or on the Colorado Trail) will want to obtain
newer maps and information from other sources for those new routes.

Concluding Thoughts

I
like the Mountain Map - it's an excellent intro view to the wonderfully
scenic and diverse Sawatch Range of Colorado, and I think
it's a good value at US$9.95. The paper is waterproof and durable, both the
folded and unfolded sizes are convenient, and the map design is very
readable. For hikes off-trail or for trails new to me I'll bring
along additional maps at larger scales for greater detail, but the
contour interval and relief shading on the Mountain Map are great for
overview planning. The additional trail and trailhead summaries
are useful and save time for me, since otherwise I'd have to look up
elevations and mileages elsewhere.

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